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This weekend, Gutsy Goldberg of Back Seat Drivers took an interesting look at the NBA seasons in which the best teams were the strongest, using our very own SRS formula. The challenge to this year's Lakers, Cavs, Celtics, Magic, and (maybe) Spurs? Beat the 1995-96 crop of Chicago, Seattle, Utah, San Antonio, and Orlando.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 2:33 am and is filed under Layups.
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2 Responses to “Layups: Which Season Had the Most “Superpowers”?”

I actually would have guessed the 1996 season would be the highest ranked by SRS. Chicago, Seattle, and Orlando all had really great seasons. What's really impressive about that season is that the 60 win Magic should have been a lot better. Shaq missed 28 games that season. So much of that sort of thing really is determined by health.

95-96 is a great first choice, but it is very arguable. Even the next season, presented a whole lineup of possible superpower teams.

In 96-97, Shaq headed off to Los Angeles to a deeply-talented Laker team, which featured Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell, Rick Fox, Robert Horry, Jerome Kersey, and a 1st year Kobe Bryant. The Jazz managed to win 64 games, as the Heat reached a franchise best, 61. While, other teams, like Rockets (trading for Sir Charles) and Knicks (signing Allan Houston) made major moves that off-season reaching 57 wins, along with Supersonics being trailed by a surprising 56 win Atlanta Hawks team with a newly acquired Dikembe Mutombo.

This past season had the Celtics, Lakers, Magic, and Cavs, though I'm not sure about the Cavs or Magic, they didn't seem to an intimidating rosters, compared to some of these other rosters.

89-90: Pistons (59), Bulls (55), Trailblazers(59), Lakers (63), and a San Antonio (56) team that put up good fight against the Blazers. One could even add a pretty talented Suns who stunned the Lakers in 5 games.

88-89: 2x defending champion Lakers (57), and the Pistons (63) whom Los Angeles defeated in the Finals (dethroned by them). Also add in, probably the most talented Cavalier teams in that franchise's history.

92-93: 2 time champion Bulls team (57), Knicks (60), Suns (62), a pre-Championship Rockets team (55), and a very potent Supersonics team (55). Possibly, the Cavs who are on the bubble, because they weren't as successful as these other teams.

95 Western Conference might have been the only time in history, where one conference had two 60 win teams (Spurs - 62) with a 59 win squad and 57 win team, yet not one of them reached the NBA Finals that season.

86-87: Another year dominated by the Celtics (59) and Lakers (65), but there are some insanely talented teams, like the Hawks (57) and Mavericks (55) on the periphery with a quickly improving Detroit team.